Saturday, April 15, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 180, Apr 14, 2017

Map comparing WMosul April 4 (top) to April 14, 2017 (bottom). The police
have made no movement for a month in the Old City (grey area) to the right. The
Golden Division on the other hand has moved up into the center of the city. The
9th Division and Hashd also just took the towns leading to the
entrance to Mosul from the northwest. Green = liberated, white = IS controlled,
blue = Tigris river (Ninewa Media Center)

ISF using jamming devices against IS UAVs Mosul (Baghdad
Post)

Despite news that the police have returned to the fight in
the Old City district of west Mosul, they appear to still be taking only baby
steps. According
to the head of the Federal Police General Raed Jawadat his forces destroyed an
Islamic State command center in the district, and made a thrust towards the
Grand Mosque. The militants on the other hand counterattacked
in the same area. When the police reached the Old City they were immediately
held up by the tough IS defenses and the dense layout. They then shifted to a
holding force to occupy the insurgents, while the Golden Division moved up the
flank of the district. The police recently announced they had returned to the
offensive, but there has yet to be any real difference in the pace of
operations not any advances announced.

Michael Knights and Alex Mello wrote an excellent piece
analyzing the tactics the Islamic State has employed in Mosul. The insurgents
have changed their fighting style from previous urban battles such as Fallujah.
There IS set up extensive IED fields, hard points, and deployed snipers and car
bombs on the perimeter. Once those lines were broken the group’s defenses
quickly collapsed. In Ninewa, the militants reversed that strategy. Some
outlying towns to the city were fortified to slow the advance of the Iraqi
joint forces, but IS was saving most of its men and material for Mosul itself. It
successfully predicted the main routes the Iraqi forces (ISF) would take into
the city and set up two defensive lines, one on the east and one in the
southwest to counter them. Instead of the IED fields that it had used
previously, IS deployed small teams of men with machine guns and RPGs that
would fire and maneuver, and constantly move from position to position, and
re-infiltrate areas under government control. These were supported by car
bombs, which were constantly adapted to the changing environment and ISF
responses. For instance, the vehicle bombs were at one point painted like the
surrounding buildings to blend in with the environment. They were then made to
look like regular vehicle even though they were armored to try to prevent their
destruction by small arms fire. Finally, the group has constantly threatened
liberated areas with raids, car bombs, drones, and mortar fire. Despite IS’s
evolution, it is still losing to the ISF. Attrition is reducing its fighters
and elite units such as the Golden Division have proven effective fighting them.

Agence
France Presse ran a story on football returning to Mosul. Under IS rule
people could still play the game, but under strict rules. Now the provincial
Sports Department is trying to repair fields so players can enjoy the sport
freely. This is another sign of the determination of the residents of Mosul to
rebuild their lives. The government is still barely present within the city, but
even little acts like these are important to get things back to normal.

Speaking of rebuilding, ten families returned to Qaraqosh
to the east of Mosul. Shops are re-opening and people are trying to clean up
the churches, which were destroyed by the Islamic State. Some of the returnees
were worried about the Shiite slogans spray painted in the town, and the Shiite
flags that have been put up. They were afraid that could lead to sectarian
tensions. Most of Qaraqosh was Christian, and that community was devastated by
the Islamic State. They are now weary of anything that could lead to future
violence.

Displacement
patterns are changing in Ninewa. Many displaced (IDPs) rather than going to
camps have chosen to relocate to east Mosul. There they are renting, staying
with relatives or squatting in abandoned buildings there. There is a constant
flow of people back into the city as well with approximately 11,000 returns
during the second week of April. There are three motivations for the change.
One is people do not want to submit to the restrictions within the displacement
camps such as the inability to leave. Second, almost all the camps are full or
just at capacity. Finally, IDPs want to be near their homes so they can go back
to them as soon as possible.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com